The Age of Cancer

After the three great Spiritual festivals marking the three energies of creation - Love Light and Power, about which we have spoken previously, we come to the sign of Cancer.

It is said that the Zodiac sign of Cancer marks our entry into the physical world – the world of matter.

Countless Millennia ago, long before we became the humans we are today, we all existed in the world of energy, the world of Spirit.

In order to gain experience, we needed to have a physical body in which to experience. Without that, it would be like dreaming – a sort of unreal state, in which nothing is ever concretised or real.

Because it is an amorphous state, nothing is clear or real enough to register as permanent learning, and therefore useful for future reference. This helps us to understand why Cancer is considered as our point of entry into this physical world.

The crab is a very apt symbol for Cancer as it has a hard shell, symbolising the material body, encasing a vulnerable inner being, to protect it – just like the eternal spirit encased in matter.

Cancer is ruled by the moon and is responsible for the life rhythms on Earth – the tides, growing, planting and harvesting cycles of plants and human hormonal cycles. It is one of the ways we are anchored to the earth, and to all upon it.

Because the moon rules the tides, it also affects all bodies of water, like rivers, lakes and dams, including our own body. Scientific testing can measure the pull of the tides in a cup of coffee - a pretty small amount to test!

It was in a long distant Age of Cancer, that we first took on physical form, as Cancer is the sign of matter or form in its rudimentary stages. It is ruled by the moon, who is called the ‘Mistress of Magic’ - and what could be more magical than the creation of a new life?

Cancer is a group sign, the sign symbolising the general mass of humanity who is driven by the emotions and mass opinion.

The crab symbolises imprisonment (hard shell) in matter, responding to the instinctual consciousness of the mass, with little sense of self or individuality. The awareness of ‘Self-hood’ or ‘light within’ is only dimly felt or recognised and not yet exercised.

In today’s world, we would refer to this as ‘tribal consciousness’, but there is really no pure tribal consciousness left in our world today. Despite the seemingly painfully slow evolutionary progress, we have actually moved well beyond this level in our evolutionary journey.

Ideally, we can see we now have moved beyond this primitive state of thinking we are our body, and begin to experience ourselves as more than just a physical being – ‘a Spiritual Being having a human experience’ - merely using the body as a vehicle for that experience!

The next stage in our evolution, is to allow the inner being, the ‘light within’ to shine through the physical, illuminating and lightening it, making it a beacon of hope for others still struggling in the darkness of materiality.